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LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE Penang, 1939. Being half Chinese and half English, Philip Hutton always felt like he never belonged. That is until he befriends Hayato Endo, a mysterious Japanese diplomat and master in the art of aikido. But when Japan invades Malaya, Philip realises Endo bears a secret, one powerful enough to jeopardise everything he loves. This masterful début conjures an unforgettable tale of courage, brutality, loyalty, deceit and love.
Amidst the Chinese-Malay conflict in Kuala Lumpur in 1969, sixteen-year-old Melati must overcome prejudice, violence, and her own OCD to find her way back to her mother.
This is the first major study to bring together for examination all of Conrad's Malay fiction: the early novels, Almayer's Folly , An Outcast of the Islands , and Lord Jim ; the two later novels, Victory and The Rescue ; and various short stories, such as The Lagoon and Karain . The volume focuses on cross-cultural encounters, cultural identity and cultural dislocation, paying particular attention to issues of race and gender. He also situates Conrad's fiction in relation to earlier English accounts of South-East Asia.
Not many of us can claim to have pounded the streets of Kuala Lumpur as part of a 21km run, fallen off Mount Murud, Sarawak’s tallest mountain (and survived!), or sailed down the Linggi River in Negeri Sembilan in search of crocodiles. But Sharon Cheah can! And that’s only scratching the surface of her whirlwind tour of Malaysia. This was a journey that spanned five years as Cheah, a Malaysian journalist, set the goal of visiting every state in East and West Malaysia, to really get to know her homeland.The result? A fascinating series of travel essays spanning history, culture, religion, environment, food, and myth and archaeology. From a homestay in Kelantan to visiting one of the top three rainforest research centres in the world (in Sabah), come discover Malaysia as you’ve never seen it before.Malaysia Bagus!
What happens after a country splits apart? Forty-seven years ago Singapore separated from Malaysia. Since then, the two countries have developed along their own paths. Malaysia has given preference to the majority Malay Muslims—the bumiputera, or sons of the soil. Singapore, meanwhile, has tried to build a meritocracy—ostensibly colour-blind, yet more encouraging perhaps to some Singaporeans than to others. How have these policies affected ordinary people? How do these two divergent nations now see each other and the world around them? Seeking answers to these questions, two Singaporeans set off to cycle around Peninsular Malaysia, armed with a tent, two pairs of clothes and a daily budget of three US dollars each. They spent 30 days on the road, cycling through every Malaysian state, and chatting with hundreds of Malaysians. Not satisfied, they then went on to interview many more people in Malaysia and Singapore. What they found are two countries that have developed economically but are still struggling to find their souls.
When Alexandra Wong left her corporate job to pursue her dream of being a writer, she didn't expect to open a treasure chest of experiences. Culture shock and curtains of mosquitoes give way to familial warmth at an Iban longhouse. A French former nuclear scientist who embraced Malaysia as his second home makes a weekend in Gua Musang even more memorable. Pointers on how to be a serious and caring teacher emerge from one of her school's naughtiest girls. And stirring displays of chivalry help Alexandra see titled and supposedly aloof public figures in a different light. From the generosity of food vendors and selflessness of bus and taxi drivers to innumerable life lessons learnt from friends both old and new, she knew from the very start she was chasing something far more precious than her dream. A compilation of her popular Navel Gazer columns in The Star and other stories, Made in Malaysia is about one woman's journey of discovery across a historically and culturally rich and diverse land.
Shortlisted for Singapore Book Awards 2018, Best Book Cover Design Winner of the Penang Monthly Book Prize 2017 Journalist Delonix Regia chances upon the cultured and irresistible Omar amidst the upheaval of the Reformasi movement in Kuala Lumpur. As the city roils around them, they find solace in love, marriage, and then parenthood. But when their two-year-old daughter Alba is kidnapped, Del must confront the terrible secret of a city where babies are sold and girls trafficked. By turns heart-breaking and suspenseful, Once We Were There is a debut novel of profound insight. It is Bernice Chauly at her very best.
Religion has featured in Anglophone literature in Malaysia from colonial times to the present. In Intimating the Sacred, Andrew Hock Soon Ng considers the practice of everyday religiosity as represented in literature, which is often starkly opposed to the impression created by religious rhetoric promoted by the government. The book's examination of intersections between (post)modernity and religion highlights links between religion and other facets of colonial and postcolonial identity such as class, gender and sexuality. It will appeal not only to scholars and specialists, but also to anyone who enjoys modern Southeast Asian literature. Andrew Hock Soon Ng is senior lecturer in literary stu...
A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE WINNER OF THE MAN ASIAN LITERARY PRIZE AND THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE Teoh Yun Ling was seventeen years old when she first heard about Aritomo and the garden. But a war would come to Malaya, and a decade pass before she would travel to see him. A man of extraordinary skill and reputation, Aritomo was once the gardener for the Emperor of Japan, and now Yun Ling needs him. She needs him to help her build a memorial to her beloved sister, killed at the hands of the Japanese. She wants to learn everything Aritomo can teach her, and do her sister proud, but to do so she must also begin a journey into her own past, a past inextricably linked with the secrets of her troubled country. A story of art, war, love and memory, The Garden of Evening Mists captures a dark moment in history with richness, power and incredible beauty.
Winner of the 2020 Epigram Books Fiction Prize When a renegade prophet vanishes in a cloud of pigeons in Kuala Lumpur, chorister and first witness Gabriel finds himself press-ganged into a wild road trip down the Malaysian coast. Meanwhile, in a sleepy town by the sea, Lydia traces the links between her late grandaunt’s eccentric lover and her involvement in the Communist Emergency. As Lydia and Gabriel enter a shadowy mythology of serpents, Sufi saints and plainclothes gods, they must grapple with the theologies and histories they once trusted, in a country more perilously punk than they’d ever conceived of. Reader Reviews: "A dizzying tale of saints, heists, maybe-queens." —The Strai...